How to Spot a Bad Tutorial in 5 Minutes

A good tutorial is invisible. It integrates seamlessly into gameplay, teaches through doing, and encourages players to keep playing without making them feel dumb or restricted. But when tutorials are poorly done, they’re not just minor annoyances, they can, yes, kill interest in the game altogether.

So how do you know if a tutorial is bad? What’s the worst tutorial you’ve experienced, and what can we learn from it? Tutorials are often something players force themselves to get through quickly, barely pay attention, or skip entirely. That has to do with, let’s face it, learning isn’t fun for a lot of people, but it’s also about how developers present the information. Many tutorials are very slow and that’s a huge problem, because they ruin the First-Time User Experience (FTUE).

You must capture your audience through your narrative or mechanics within the first few minutes. If not, they’ll likely put the game down in favor of whatever the latest flashy distraction is on top of the Steam list. We need to hook our players and that’s incredibly hard, especially now, when people only stay focused on a screen for about 47 seconds, down from 2.5 minutes in 2004. It’s embarrassing to say, but it’s true.

Then if you start with a long cutscene, you’ll lose gameplay-focused players. Jump straight into gameplay with no context, and you’ll lose narrative-focused players. The best tutorials? They always somehow manage to do both!

Bad tutorials aren’t just about horrible pacing or clunky UX. At their core, they show a lack of empathy for players. They ignore their experience, assume their incompetence, and forget that games are learned best by just… doing. If your game hasn’t let the player PLAY within the first five minutes, maybe you don’t even trust them to play at all.

1. It Frontloads Everything

If the first thing you see in a game is a wall of text, a list of mechanics, or an overbearing voiceover explaining every system, that’s a massive red flag. Tutorials like Pokémon Sun and Moon fall into this trap, turning their entire first island into a bloated, over-explained mess. The game spends nearly an hour walking players through mechanics that fans have known for generations. Instead of letting players learn through natural play, it insists on explaining every small action through dialogue and cutscenes.

Red Flag: If you’ve spent 10 minutes in a tutorial and haven’t made a meaningful decision or action yet…

2. It Doesn’t Trust the Player

A bad tutorial assumes the player knows nothing, and then refuses to let them prove otherwise. These tutorials drag you from one checkpoint to another, gating progress behind dialogue boxes or arbitrary restrictions.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is a great example. Before the action even begins, you’re stuck herding goats, fishing, and performing chores in Ordon Village for over an hour. While immersive to some, it kills pacing for players expecting an adventure. And none of it is skippable.

Red Flag: If the tutorial prevents exploration, locks mechanics until it “says so,” or treats players like they’re incapable in some sort of way…

3. It’s Too Hard, Too Soon

Tutorials are meant to teach, not test. And yet, games like The Witcher 2 or Jet Set Radio drop new players into punishing scenarios that demand mastery of systems the tutorial hasn’t properly explained.

The Witcher 2’s prologue doesn’t scale difficulty appropriately, introducing complex skill systems and pitting players against strong enemies before they’ve grasped the basics. Similarly, Jet Set Radio expects players to perform a 50-combo move chain within minutes of starting, which is a challenging demand even for experienced players.

Red Flag: If the tutorial feels like an exam before a lesson…

4. It’s Hidden or Missable

Believe it or not, some tutorials don’t even tell you where they are. Elden Ring’s Cave of Knowledge is technically the game’s tutorial, but you have to fall down a small ledge most players miss to find it. If you follow the glowing exit path (as the game encourages), you’ll skip it entirely.

Skyrim takes it further. One of its best tutorials: Angi’s archery lessons, is buried on a remote mountainside that few players will ever find. While discovery can be rewarding, essential tutorials shouldn’t be hidden behind exploration especially if they offer very important knowledge.

Red Flag: If the tutorial is optional but extremely important, and the game doesn’t tell you that…

5. It’s Repetitive or Non-Skippable

One of the clearest signs of a bad tutorial is its unskippable repetition. If you’re forced to go through the same sequence every time you start a new game, it stops being a learning tool and starts to feel like a chore.

Great tutorials scale or adapt on repeat playthroughs. They allow veteran players to skip content, while giving new players the option to dive in deeper. Bad tutorials treat every playthrough like it’s your first, wasting your time and creating an experience that becomes less enjoyable when you replay the game.

Red Flag: If you groan at the thought of replaying the intro…